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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

The Jack Vance Locked Room: A Room to Die In (Ellery Queen), 1965

As it is well known by now, the two cousins Manny and Danny QUEEN, thought at
one point to stop the series of Ellery Queen. Probably theysaw themselves out of the world, with an Ellery
that extricated himself with puzzles that if respected the '' enigma deductive
formal "in the words by Francis Nevins, were not compatible with the
address which had taken the Crime Fiction after the end of World War II: less
brainy puzzles, and more action and violence. The Finishing Stroke, therefore,
would have to be the "swan song" of the series. But, instead, the
novel of 1958, was the last only in intention, because, five years later, in
1963, the two cousins thought to resume cooperation and continue the queenian series
with The
Player on the Other Side . However, something was not right.
In fact, two years before, in essence two years after The Finishing Stroke, was published a novel called Dead Man's Tale. Radically different
style, seemed squeak not a little with that idea of detective fiction that Ellery
Queen had imposed until to two years before. The beauty is that it was not a
solitary incident, but was followed by 26novels all very different, because – this, the idea revolutionary base -
the two cousins (Manfred Lee), entrusted to a series of minor authors, the
continuation of their series, creating a kind of parallel track but radically
different.

Essentiallythose whowe
usually call"queenian apocryphal ", a
term that does not do justiceto the
experiment, werenovelsthatbroketheformal unityof the novelsuntil to thatof 1958, but(it is also true) that they hadthe” imprimatur”by one of theQueen, Lee, who
supervisedthe workandoftenturnedanovel, ina good novel.Among the authors, figuredoftenalsoknownscience fiction authors, borrowedgender"mystery", asEdwardD.Hoch, Theodore SturgeonorJackVance, as well asauthorsof
rankhardboiledasHanryKane.Three novelsof the serieswere writtenbyJackVance, "well-known science fiction writer, who “was one amongthe few writers that wrote apocryphal to have
deliberatelyadopted queenian situationsandtopics”:The
FourJohns;The MadmanTheory; A Roomto
Die In.

Moreover
aboutqueenian Locked Rooms, is notthat there area
lot: The King is Dead, The Door Between,
The Chinese OrangeMystery. Butthe solution adoptedhere, is at the limit: it is a workof break.Why?The locked room, it is quite
dissimilar from theconstruction of aLockedRoomtout
court, ashad beentheorized byCarr, Rawson,
BoucherandDerek
Smith. It providedbasicallythree possiblemoments(a room in whichthe
crimeoccurredbefore, one in whichoccurredat
the same timeandfinallyanotherwhere the victimis killedafter) andan endless array oftricks toclose the dooror windows.Here, instead,we
resortto a solutionthatsubvertsthe ruleinspirationalbackground, that’s themurderer’sfleefroma
locked room.

RolandNelsonwas found
deadin his house, in ahermetically sealedroom, withmanyboltsand latchesto thinkthat
hefearedfor his safety. His deathis defined as
suicideby the InspectorThomasTarrwhenheshall reportthe circumstancesto his daughterAnn, reachedby a policemanat home.Forthe policethe
case is closed, for the daughternot.Shedoes not stop. Sheknew too muchhis
father, a man full oflife,
thatwould never havekilled himself. Yetthe
factof the discoveryof his
corpseisthere toremind her that it must be suicide. But shedoes not believe it.By whomhewas
afraidof being killed? Why onhis bank accountisa shortfall oftwenty thousanddollars andthen twothousandmonthlywithdrawals, as if he hadpaid ablackmailer?
And why ablackmail?

RolandNelsonhadhad adaughterbypartnerElaineGluckwithoutever havingmarried, but thenhe
was married witha rich woman,
PearlMaudley. The
marriage,for a
certaininsensitivitybyRolandwasshipwreckedsoonbutshe did
not wanta divorce, and soone night,after beingbyCypriano, a couple
of friends, Pearlhad died byaccident.Rolandhad inheriteda fortune. Is it possible that hehad had anyresponsibility in thedeath of his wifeandanyone
had discovered it? Tarralsoinvestigatesin this sense, buthe doesn’t findanything.

The private life of
Roland is screened thoroughly. He was a chess player, which could also become a
better player if he had persevered and had it been less bold. His usual playmate
had been Alexander Cypriano, an excellent player who, once learned the death of
Roland, shows up at the Roland’s daughter inviting her to lunch. Ann understands
there is down something: she thinks that the reason may be a valuable board that
found among the belongings of his father, ebony inlaid with rubies and diamonds,
the memory of a great victory in an international tournament. Cypriano said it was
his and had been given to Roland Nelson after a joke. But then she discovers that
the house of Cypriano is mortgaged and registered holder of the mortgage was Pearl,
from which it had passed to Roland. But this mortgage is not found.
Even ambiguous are two other characters: the landlord of Nelson, the builder Martin
Jones, and a cousin of Pearl, Edgar Maudley.

The
first isunpleasant
man, who speaks ill about Roland Nelson, andoffends Ann; the
second isa bird of prey, defrauded
about thefamily treasurefrom the marriageof Pearl withRoland: a cousinthat
he would beheir byPearl if
Roland had not hada recognized daughter.
Nowhe is theretoask her,when not to impose her almostthe
return offamily assets. Anndoes not intend totake advantageabout the situationbut not even to be takenbya fool;
and so she agreesabout the divisionof assets,
especially booksofrareeditions, containedintwo largebookcasesagainst the wallcovered withwooden panels, which divides thestudy roomfrom the living room.Formost, the Ann’s
motheris not found. Is she the
blackmailer? It comesa her letter that
obliges to think about herimpending
arrival. But...nothing.Alsootherthingsdo not add up.

First of all the
shots: they are heard three during the night at which died Nelson, but only a
bullet has killed him and there is no sign about the other two: either bullets or shells. Then the
question about the mortgage: she finds it
was torn by Roland after he and Alexander are played to chess having as trophy
for the winner, Jehane, wife of Alexander and bedfellow of Nelson. Roland had won, she obviously had refused to
be used as a thing, her husband had offered his precious board to rival, and Roland had torn
the mortgage as to seal the end of his relationship (with his lover: Jehane). And
finally the footprints left on the floor: Ann in her desperate search of truth,
analyzed the impossibility of the situation of his father's death, and passed
to sift all, focuses her action on the two libraries and realizes that on the
ground there are a number footprints circular: there should be six and nine instead
she finds, although the walls are solid.

After two more murders (the
husband of his mother Elaine, Harvey Gluck, strangled instead of Ann, in the
bathroom of Ann; and her mother Elaine, strangled three months before and found
in the trunk of her car, abandoned in a junkyard ), Ann will understand the
motive of the murder and will find the solution, the culprit and will deliver
him to Tarr, hopelessly in love with her.

Beautiful novel, has an ending that recalls somehow the French literature of
thirties: the murderer is found at the moment when you understand how was thought
the Locked Room, because his criminal action identifies him as the only one
that would could achieve it in that context. Beyond this, the novel (its
original title was Death of a Solitairy
Chess Player ) rows that it is a pleasure.

Ann seeks out, Ann tries, Ann is
in danger, Ann solves. The police action is limited to mostly the confirmation
and elimination of false leads, with its investigation.

Then..it’s interesting the
structure of the plot: about the Locked Room it’s talking at the beginning, at
the discovery of the corpse; then we talk about other things: blackmail, other
characters in the drama. Then returns the speech about the LockedRoom, and once you move away from it, and
this stretch and contract the rope goes even further: it is as if the Locked
Room, while not always talking about it, conditioned the course of the novel,
because at the end, everything we talked about, and we thought served to
distract the reader “stretching the broth”, actually it finds in the final. Jack
Vance is linear in his estate, but you
can see a mile away that he was not a writer paid to the Mystery. From what? From
the suicide.

The police, until it’s
proven otherwise, supports the theory of suicide. For the fact that the body
was found in a hermetically sealed chamber, with a wound-blank. The beauty is that
it does not explain everything: strange this
police! If Roland shot himself, the paraffin glove would prove it: but..has
been done the paraffin glove? No. Why? Maybe - thinks the reader – the police was so convinced about the suicide. OK. And the
wound-blank? How was it possible that the murderer could fire at point-blank to
Roland without he did not fit? Without signs
of a struggle had been found, scratches, or worse that the victim had been stunned
or drugged. Nothing. Nothing to explain this. Strange this! Moreover, the medical
examiner, who always enters in the investigation by Ellery (Sam Prouty) with his
characteristic shape, you do not see him here. It’s as if naively Vance would
put axioms without prove them, that
instead belongs at the normal procedure of implantation and resolution of a classic
detective novel. And the gun? A pistol .38
you don’t knowif it was property by
victim or not. You don’t know how it can be entered, if it is suicide. That's all
this is not explained in the novel.
In conclusion ...
The solution remains, nice. But then you realize that it's all a bluff. Because
the murderer didn’tgo out from the
locked room, if anything he created it.

Personal Informations

I am Italian. Once I was reporter, of classical music. Since several years I collaborate with "Il Blog del Giallo Mondadori".
I wrote a lot of stories ( 1 Locked Room Novel also and 1 Locked Room
long tale, both not yet published) almost all "Locked Rooms", readable
on Sherlock Magazine Web site, among which Queen and Rawson apocryphal,
while 3 S.Holmes apocryphal have been published in paper form.
I wrote essays about E.Queen, R.King, Carr, Berkeley, Aveline,
E.d'Errico, S.S.Van Dine, N.Marsh, C.Brand, A.Christie, M.Allingham,
etc..on the blogs: "Il Giallo Mondadori", "La Morte Sa Leggere", and on
sites web: "Sherlock Holmes Magazine" and "EuroPolar".
On italian Mondadori's Blog Giallo, I wrote a history of Locked-Room
Lectures in three parts ( a fourth part is in preparation). Coming soon a my new short story, a classical locked room, will be published from an important american publishing house.I own five blogs about Crime fiction (3 at italian language and 2 at english language) and 1 of Classical Music.